Broken Misery (H.Styles Fanfic)

Chapter 13

Long Chapter!
Read End Notes.

-Katexx

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Chapter 13

"This made no sense at all!" I snap angrily at no one in particular as I walk out of the classroom, not bothering to hold the door for the two girls exiting behind me. They send me glares but, through the glossiness of their looks, I can see they feel my pain.

Alfie sighs and straightens from his position leaning against the wall. Even though he managed to get out of the dreadful exam a little bit before I did, I could still hear him sighting as he gathered his things and walked up to the professor. His eyes were slightly hooded when he looked at me before leaving the class and I could only guess that just like me, it hadn't gone well. "I'm quite aware of that, dear Elena," he agrees, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "I'll be burning the stupid book in the fireplace on Christmas. Fuck Santa. He's the one who decided to finally give me one of the things I asked for the year I wrote 'university education' on my wish list. That prick can burn in hell."

I lift an eyebrow. "Did you really write 'college education' on a Christmas wish list?"

"I was sixteen and had just discovered I was attracted to the male gender!" he protests with a laugh. "I knew I wasn't going to have a wife and kids like my dad wanted, so I thought 'might as well get a good education'. And besides, it was the only thing I could've agreed to do to please my parents."

"And now what would you tell your sixteen-year-old self if you could go back in time and give him one single advice?"

For two and a half seconds, Alfie seems to consider a proper answer for this question, but he quickly recovers and throws his head back in laughter. "I'd tell myself not to drink so much on the day I wrote that wish list. Let's be real, I was totally pissed."

"Then to be fair and honor that awful decision, I think we should just drink now," I offer desperately.

And the reason is indeed fair, because our intro to media exam couldn't have been more of a pain in the ass. Two hours this morning were reserved to study before the afternoon exam, but despite the inconceivable amount of time wasted studying, the notes taken and the concepts learnt by heart, the exam consisted of analysing a video presented in the first two minutes of the class - and those two minutes included the short presentation and explanations from the teacher! - and writing a two-thousand-word text on it, including concepts and explanations.

Relating ideas and analysing a medium seemed easy at the time, but after watching the forty-second video in Spanish with blurry English subtitles written under bright yellow Spanish subtitles, you could hear gasps of worry all around the classroom. It could've simply been an introduction video for the actual exam, just something to give us an idea of what we were about to do, or even something to relax before a stressful test, but as the professor passed around the answer booklet, the widening glares were frightening. My hands quivered as I took the booklet the professor handed me, my mouth too frozen to even say thank you. Just as predicted, my eyes widened when I opened the empty booklet, pages filled with lines to write.

Alcohol is definitely deserved on this evening. Having enough time tomorrow morning to clear any leftover alcohol we'll have in our system before our last exam, we walk down the street and head to the closest pub where we've been a few times after a stressful day. Alfie grabs us stools at the bar and snaps his fingers like a true Englishman calling for two pints of Stella.

"I'm not letting you drink that cheap Budweiser mix you call beer tonight, love," he beams at me as he slides a few bills to the guy behind the bar. "Tonight, you're drinking like a man."